Rock in Rio has launched its environmental project Amazonia Live which aims to plant over a million trees.

This is Rock in Rio’s social project, Amazonia Live. The project aims to plant over a million trees in 400 hectares of deforested areas in the Xingu River in northern Brazil.

To mark the launch of the project on August 27, 2016 Rock in Rio organized a concert on a floating stage on the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon river. It included performers like Placido Domingo, Andreas Kisser and Ivete Sangalo and was broadcasted around the world to promote the project.

Reforesting will be a way to preserve the water and bolster the local economy as all the seeds will be provided by indigenous peoples of the region. According to the organizers this initiative will generate about R$700,000 of income for families collecting the seeds and 50 direct jobs.

The plan is to use Mucuva, a way of planting that costs up to 50% lower than the traditional seedling planting methods. It uses direct seeding and consists of mixing several native species seeds. This enables the simultaneous germination of plants with different behaviors and increases biodiversity. The technique is based on evidence from tree planters in Xingu-Araguaia.

“I feel like people do not know how to help. Rock in Rio will explain how to help.” President of Rock in Rio, Roberto Medina said when announcing the project earlier this year on April 4th.

“We are committing today to plant one million trees, but the World Bank has announced another million. We also have additional customers and we can easily get to a total of three million trees planted with investments made by the private sector,” he added.

For anyone willing to collaborate, you can make a donation at eSolidar.com in FUNBIO's profile. For now Amazonia Live has raised $21, 960 both in trees to plant ($1,64) and bracelet packs($15,16).

Rock in Rio was founded in 1985, since 2001 it has funded various social and environmental projects. These includes the opening of 70 classrooms in Rio de Janeiro, a solar energy generation project and strategies to encourage the use of public transportation. The organizers say these have helped more than 54,000 people every year and more than 24 million euros have been invested in socio-environmental projects.